1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an imaging apparatus, an image recording medium, and a method of setting the quality of a captured image. More particularly, the present invention relates to an imaging apparatus operating on the basis of setting information determining the quality of a captured image, an image recording medium for recording image information generated by the imaging apparatus, and a method of setting the quality of an image captured by the imaging apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
To date, when a cameraman shoots a film and a photographer takes a photograph using a cinema-film camera and a silver-still camera, respectively, it has been customary for them to select one of the various films that are on the market in order to set the intended image quality.
Various kinds of films that are used for cinema-film cameras and silver-still cameras are marketed with various characteristics, such as a sensitivity, tungsten/daylight, monochrome/color, etc., that are determined individually in accordance with the weather of a shooting date, a shooting situation, the quality of an obtained image, etc. The cameraman and photographer have been selecting a film that allows obtaining a desired image quality with reference to the various characteristics of the film described on the package, etc. In this manner, it has been possible for the cameraman and photographer to obtain the intended image quality by selecting a film without setting the cinema-film cameras and the silver-still cameras in particular.
In recent years, digital cinema cameras and digital still cameras have become widespread in place of such cinema-film cameras and silver-still cameras, respectively. For digital cinema cameras and digital still cameras, it is necessary to obtain a desired image quality by individually setting the various characteristics, such as a sensitivity, color temperature, etc. Thus, there are many items to be set, and the operation for the setting has been troublesome. In particular, for a photographer who is accustomed to obtain the intended image quality by selecting a film, it has been difficult to obtain the intended image quality by the operation of setting individual setting items, because that operation is quite different from the selection of a film, which has been carried out up to date.
Accordingly, a method of adjusting the quality of an image has been proposed by storing a plurality of parameter groups in accordance with the shooting situations for digital cinema cameras and digital still cameras in a predetermined storage section in advance and allowing the photographer to select a desired parameter group (for example, refer to Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2004-179883).